Bakers Journal August/September 2017 : Page 14

THE BAGEL From old-school to new styles, the bagel is as loved as ever | BY LAURA AIKEN B agels are like The Beatles of baking: an original rock star with legendary backstory and legions of enduring fans. Much like The Beatles experimented with sounds that strayed from their early days, the bagel is also finding its own version of Sgt. Pepper’s . The exact origins of the venerable bagel are a bit murky, describes Canadian Encyclopedia online, who dedicated a page to the history of the Montreal bagel, an iconic Canadian product. It might have been a Jewish-Viennese baker in the late 17th century creating bread in the shape of a stirrup (beugel in Austrian German) as a present for King of Poland, John III Sobieski. The beugel became a part of Polish cuisine, and a common gift for new mothers. The Montreal bagel arrived in Canada with eastern European Jewish immi-grants in the early 1900s. Two businesses cemented its place in Canadian food history. Isadore Schlafman opened the Montreal Bagel Bakery in 1919, then moved to Fairmount street and opened what was to become The Original Fairmount Bagel Bakery in 1949. The bakery is managed by Schlafman’s grandchildren today, and still maintains East Coast Bakery owner Gerry Lonergan with his east coast style bagels in Halifax. plenty of fans. Greg Chamitoff, an While Montreal remains prolific in its bagel retaining an old world style while New York bagels have incorporated more astronaut, even took making, a new hybrid is flourishing on the modern technology. Fairmount’s bagels to east coast. At St-Viateur, bagels are hand-made, space with him. boiled and baked on wood. The produc-Hyman Seligman tion rate is 35 dozen an hour in four to brought in $62,000 for the Foundation and Myer Lewkowicz opened St-Viateur five minute cycles. There is an 18-minute of Stars, an organization which supports Bagel in 1957 in the same area of bake time, and every four minutes it’s research into childhood diseases. Montreal. One of its future partners, Joe four dozen out and four dozen in. St-Viateur, a Montreal original, also Morena, was only 15 when he started Morena notes that some shops can do remains a thriving landmark. working there, reports St-Viateur’s Vince Morena, along with his brothers, 3000 dozen an hour compared to their website. Morena partnered with 35. “It’s what holds us back sometimes,” have been working in the St-Viateur Lewkowicz in 1974, and they worked he says. together until Lewkowicz’s death in 1994. bagel shop since they were teens. The oven at St-Viateur doesn’t even Whether its New York style or Montreal Morena and Marco Sbalno partnered to have a temperature gauge. The baker style, he points out that they all come continue the business. In 1996, Morena, manning the oven loads the rolled from same Jewish-Polish origin. Mont-his sons Vincenzo, Nicolò and Roberto, real bagels are often thought of as denser doughs in with a long wooden paddle, and business partner Sbalno, began to and manipulates the cooking process and sweeter while New York style is expand with new locations, an online from there by watching the oven. Bagels softer and fluffier. The debate of bakery and service into the U.S. are boiled prior to bake in honey superiority rages on in many circles. St-Viateur celebrated 60 years in May sweetened water. Morena views Montreal bagels as with a big block party fundraiser that } 14 BAKERS JOURNAL / AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2017 www.bakersjournal.com PHOTO CREDIT: ADAM COOPER/MY HALIFAX